View full sizeBrandon Howell | The Bay City TimesThe Pinconning Area High School Marching Band marches down Linwood Road during the Pickle Festival Parade last year.

LINWOOD — This year's 35th annual Linwood Pickle Festival will begin on Thursday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. with the Pickle Pageant at Kawkawlin Township hall. Festivities will run through the weekend until Sunday, Aug. 21.

There has been confusion with the dates and times of this year's event due to an outdated website that remains active online, containing incorrect information.

According to the Bi-Centenniel Park president Doug Williams, the owners of the domain refused to sell the site to current board members.

“A man did the original (website) for us out of the goodness of his heart and some decisions were made by the board that left him with hard feelings,” said Williams. “We spoke to spoke to him once about buying the domain but that didn’t work out.”

The park board later paid a new designer to create www.linwoodpicklefestival.org, which contains the correct information about this year’s festival.

Williams said the cost to build a new site was almost equivalent to the asking price of buying back the original.

“We just figured we’d make a new one for the same amount of money,” said Williams. “The more people we get the word out to regarding the new site, the better.”

Three years ago Williams took over as president with a brand new park board of officials and the Linwood Pickle Festival was in desperate need of financial adjustments.

“I don’t think that the old park board was doing a bad job,” said Williams. “I just think they got tired and were hoping that someone else would come along and keep everything going.”

Since then, the festival has made huge improvements.

Certified bartenders were brought in to run the beer tent stands, ensuring that the drink sales are managed properly and efficiently.

The ball tournament has been expanded and free activities were added to Sunday’s lineup, creating a kid-friendly environment for families to enjoy.

Williams said, the park on average costs $10,000 to $15,000 a year to run and maintain. This cost does not include the necessary improvements that are made to the park each year.

“We are trying to ensure that every area of the festival is profitable,” said Williams. “We do have a lot of expenses so we want better accountability in every aspect of the event.”